Trenton councilwoman & activists demand Mack's resignation

By
Sulaiman Abdur-Rahman, The Trentonian

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

TRENTON — Councilwoman Verlina Reynolds-Jackson demanded Mayor Tony Mack’s resignation on Tuesday as a community activist group fed up with the embattled mayor’s leadership drafted a resolution that, if adopted by City Council, would admonish Mack with a vote of no confidence and urge the mayor to remove himself from office.

At Tuesday’s council meeting, Keith Hamilton of Majority for a Better Trenton said his organization has drafted the anti-Mack resolution not because of the recent FBI investigation, but because of “things that have been happening for quite a while.”

The FBI raided Mack’s house and Trenton City Hall in mid-July and arrested Mack Sept. 10 on charges he conspired with others to extort $119,000 from a Hudson County developer. The mayor is free on $150,000 unsecured bond.

Elected in 2010, Mack’s two years in office have been marred with scandals and criticism to the point where 8,500 city residents in 2011 signed a petition in a failed attempt to have Mack recalled from office.

The recall leaders primarily chided Mack for maintaining unstable leadership at the cabinet level and laying off 105 city police officers. Last month the city rehired 15 officers with the help of a federal grant.

More recently, Mack has been criticized for opening former library branches as “learning centers,” which opponents have called poorly run. Former state librarian Norma E. Blake, before retiring from her post, said Mack’s use of learning centers as pseudo libraries violates state law. Those former branch library sites closed in August 2010 under Mack’s watch amid a budget crisis.

In the City Hall scandals during Mack’s term, one of Mack’s former business administrators, Andrew McCrosson, resigned and pleaded guilty to stealing from a Congressional campaign. Mack’s former chief of staff, Paul Sigmund, resigned after being charged with heroin possession. Mack’s brother, Stanley “Muscles” Davis, pleaded guilty to illegally profiting from a Trenton Water Works job and was sentenced to six years in prison on two counts of official misconduct.

At the end of August, Mack’s administration removed a $17,000 sign it installed at Cadwalader Park because the city didn’t have proper permission when it erected the sign at the historic site on June 25. Mack opened up the city’s five public pools late for the summer swimming season this year and closed some of them early to avoid exceeding the $96,000 pools budget.

John Kocsis of Majority for a Better Trenton at Tuesday’s council meeting said he supports the no-confidence resolution and that the only parade the city should champion is “a parade that is leading our corrupt mayor to jail.”

Mack’s administration last week proposed to raise the city’s municipal property tax rate by 5 percent in a $186.4 million spending plan that would fund recreation events like the annual Thanksgiving Day parade.

“Tony Mack has showed the taxpayers of the City of Trenton no mercy and we should show him no mercy,” said city activist Dion Clark. “He’s not worthy of being the mayor.”

Council President Phyllis Holly-Ward said City Council will look at the Majority for a Better Trenton’s anti-Mack draft resolution at a future council meeting, but she told the few residents in attendance that “the mayor answers to council second. He answers to you first.”